Travelling

I think that many people like traveling and I belong to them. But there is one more group of people, who hate traveling and things connecting with it such as packing, booking a ticket and waiting of platform or airport. But I think that traveling has many advantages. We can find out a plenty of beautiful places and meet many people or friends and we obtain experiences for our life. Another reason for travelling is to gather with family and friends from distant places.

The most important reason of travelling, mainly during the holidays, is tourism. Thousands of people want to see the most beautiful sights and places in the world such as Venice, London, Rome, but also Niagara Falls, NP Yellowstone, Great Chinese Wall etc. every year.

People in the Czech Republic had been kept down about traveling. Our boards had been closed for forty years and we had lived behind the iron curtain. In year 1989 after the Velvet revolution people in our country obtain a freedom in all aspects of life including traveling. Before that we could travel to only several communistic countries such as Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Yugoslavia or Soviet Union. Nowadays we can travel around the world but we must have enough money.

From time to time nearly every family spared money for spending their summer abroad. When we go abroad we usually must get necessary documents. First of all is a valid passport, besides we must change money in a bank or in an exchange-office. It is also good to know some foreign language. In our country there is lot of travel agencies and we can arrange various kinds of holidays or trips – to well-known historical places (e.g. Egypt, Roma, Athens) and to see nice architecture cultural holidays monuments, recreation holidays in sea-side resort or various mountains (the Mediterranean, the Alps etc.) or to stay with sports and educational programmes.

When people are travelling they may carry different kinds of luggage depending on the kind of trip. If they are going on a long journey they might take a big suitcase or a duffel bag. If they are going on shorter trip they might carry a tote bag, a briefcase, a knapsack, or a small rucksack.

There are two ways of traveling – one is using own means of transport – car, motorbike, bike, walk or hitchhiking. Traveling by car is very quickly – it is very quickly especially on the highways. But we need petrol and it is very expensive nowadays. And we can stay in traffic jam for a long time. Traveling by taxi is very expensive especially in Prague.

Second way is the public transport. We can travel by bus. Bus is a good and public bus transport. Every bus has own ordinary link and stations and they work according to timetable. When we want travel by bus, we must have ticket or electric card and its value is various in each town. Regular traveler can use special travel ticket for one week, one month or for quarter a year. It is cheaper.

We can go by tram in the towns. Only eight towns in our country have trams links. Tram needs rail and electric contact wire. They are for example in Pilsen and in Prague.

And the third way is travel by trolleybus. It is special thing in twelve Czech towns. Trolleybus is something as a combination of bus and tram. They are for example in Pilsen.

The most interesting way of public transport in the town is travel by underground. Unfortunately is underground only in our capital city Prague. The building start in the seventies and it is still continuing. The first line was opened for public in year 1975. Prague underground has three links marked by letters A, B, C – it is the oldest of them. Around one million people per day use underground. Underground has long tradition and the oldest underground is in London – since 1863.

When we travel to the long way, we can travel by bus or by train. Traveling by train is quite expensive and less quick, but comfortable way of transport then buses. The most of our trains are twenty and more years old, so they are out of date and they didn’t look well and they are dirty inside. The fastest trains can travel more than 300 kilometers per hour and they are in Japan or in France – they are called TGV.

Progressive way of traveling is travel by air. It is the fastest and most comfortable way of all means of transport. It is great for long distances. But is the most expensive way of transport. Ticket costs several thousands crowns. Ticket would be booked some days before our journey. When we travel to some states, we will need visa – it is special travel card and entry permission. We should be prepared for system of control, when we show our passport and our luggage is scanning by special machines. We must pass through specials detectors and fill up travel items. We denote our family name, given name, birth day, country of citizenship and residence, contact address (address of hotel, family) and so on. Our luggage must have tag with name and address. The system of control became increase after terrorist attacks on the 11th September 2001.

The last way of transport is transport by river, sea and ocean. Ship transport is very old way of transport. Nowadays are ship used for transport of the big cargo such as petrol in ferryboat or cars or engines. People can use ship as a remarkable and interesting mean of transport, but if you have a seasick, you will choose the other ways of transport.

Some people like more romantic means of transport, such as going on a yacht, or hot-air ballooning. To the cargo transport belong trucks, vans, freight trains or ships for the big cargo.

Rakovník has own network of public transport too – there are 4 bus town lines and many local lines. You can go by bus to Slabce, Skryje, Čistá, Kladno or Prague. There is a railway station with 5 lines too – they lead to Bečov, Louny, Beroun, Mladotice or Lužná at Rakovník and then to Prague. Unfortunately we haven´t any tram, trolleybus, TGV trains or underground. But we have an airport – it is only a small sport airport for small planes and we have a heliport – it is in hospital.